VDI technology better, faster and cheaper, but adoption still slow

Allen Bernard |
Sept. 26, 2013

Virtual desktop infrastructure has come a long way since the terminal service days of the 1960s. Heck, VDI has come a long way since the 2000s thanks to plummeting prices for clients, better graphics cards and improved administration. By and large, though, VDI deployments remain more of a niche solution.

FAU's VDI implementation is just three months along, and Neelakanta says it's about as close to cutting edge as you can get today. In fact, FAU presented its case study alongside Teradici at VMworld 2013.

Storage, Licensing, Connectivity Still Stifle VDI Implementation

Even with those technological advancements, storage - specifically, the gigabits of IOPS allocated to each user - still rates as the aspect of VDI implementation area to figure out first, Neelakanta says. Without the right storage architecture to provides users with so much IOPS that they don't know their desktop is being hosted in the cloud, VDI suffers or fails altogether.

Microsoft licensing will probably cause fits for most folks, too. Finally, complexity and connectivity can be inhibitors. If you don't have a highly automated IT infrastructure with a CMMI score of 2 or 3, 10Gbps switches over fast LANs and broadband for remote workers, then attempting VDI is probably a bad idea.

"Even though it's really good stuff, until those [issues] get solved, this remains a niche market," Gartner's Margevicius says.